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Go Ahead. Reinterpret the Bible. It’s Been Done Since Day One.

There are literalists who take every word of the Bible as true and factual. Then, there are what I call semi literalists, who take their favorite parts of the Bible as literally true and ignore the rest.

It seems to me, both groups are free to ignore what the Bible says and remain in their faith. If the people during Biblical times did this, it can be done today.

The link tells us the Bible itself, including Jesus, emplored the faithful to ignore what was written. What more encouragement do people today need?

A late editor/owner of the Fargo Forum, John Paulson, once wrote that neighborhoods built after WWII did not need a historical designation because, “there isn’t any history there.” This caused more than one snicker around town because most would recognize history as being written everyday.

Bible literalists and semi literalists both have the same problem as Mr. Paulson. They see history as stopping at some point and we are to cling to notions of morals and faith that existed at that time. Like history, new ways of looking at the faith are written everyday.

Everyone who knows abandonment of the “word” started with Apostle Paul. He thought gentiles could be converted setting aside the law requiring circumcision of baby boys. And, it was.

Some believe the rules were frozen in place. If one could be abandoned, so can the rest.

11 thoughts on “Go Ahead. Reinterpret the Bible. It’s Been Done Since Day One.”

The same way the church has always let scripture guide us before we fell for the delusion of sola scriptura — tradition can lead us, the church teach us, reason inform us, and experience shape us into the people of God formed but not shackled to the Bible.
So, does God care about the Bible as much as we do?
It doesn’t seem so.
Though, of course, I can’t speak for God, so I can’t say for sure.
Zack might be onto something here.

To people like me (Jon and the others) the Bible was clearly written by man for man. Equally clearly neither Zack nor any man can speak for God (this accepting the God Hypothesis for the sake of argument).

But the part I like is “shackled to the Bible”, the mind bounded and limited by the need to fit the real world into the ancient Biblical world. By reinterpreting you are merely altering the boundaries and making different limitations.

That comes under the Law (perhaps defacto rather than dejure) of protect the good name of the Church and its servants at any cost and then bluff it out if caught. As a last resort you can start shouting about all the good you do compared to others, the louder you shout and the more extreme your claims the more likely you are to “cover up” the original crime (sin?)

You just need to realize some people need some artificial comfort, Booze, Bong or Bible or all three. Its just the way the world works for better or worse, I would rather have them high on something than out there causing trouble like the unmentionables we have on here on the blog. Chattering and babbling nonsense and hurting no one but themselves. Like your scared of end prophesy sister, just think how much safer the rest of us can feel, knowing the Christians are all home behind locked doors with fancy security systems and high on something afraid to go out even to market alone. This alone creates jobs we badly need. It leaves more parking places during the week for the rest of us, until Sunday when they think it is safe enough knowing they can go out again with the whole family in mass. Christian paranoids especially those with guilt and money make for good citizens, they are compulsive buyers, they are pretty much economically out of control, spending money on things like you can not own too many of, under garments for the whole family, Ipods with Christian music downloads, or Christian rock CD’s or Christian Romance Novels, where you and Paul can go out and slay your favorite Dragon. Busy supporting TV preachers with the life style they are accustomed to. You and I personally may find this a bit too much, but not them they get a personal appointment with God, anytime they want,

Yes, all those “high” violent offenders I have met in prisons compared to the fifty I worked with this weekend. I guess we should let every tweaker and PCP addict out of jail to prey on the weak and jail Christians?

There is a “new Bible” for just about every persuasion. A Serendipity Bible, New World, (Jehovah’s Witnesses), gender neutral, Millennium Bible, End Times Bible, How to Succeed Bible, Sacred Name Bible, several RCC specific Bibles, several interlinear bibles, several parallel bibles, Shepard’s Bible, Not to mention all the many translations for different languages. Several Hebrew Bibles, Greek Bibles, the LXX, The Bible of the lost books of Eden, “The Other Bible”, Gnostic Bible, Books Shooter’s bible, hunter’s bible, re-loader’s bible, fisherman’s bible, Bible of pharmaceuticals. I believe there are satanic bibles, Suggest one, and someone will make one.

Forgot About 4? updates to the KJV, many stated objective translations, word for word translations, I believe I saw a “Bible of Bibles” one time. Camper’s Bible, The Guitar Bible. There are many I’ve missed, and more to come I’m sure.